The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
There are many known techniques and devices for teaching science concepts. Most of these include simple devices constructed to illustrate various principles, for example, a ramp to demonstrate force and friction, a pendulum to display harmonic motion, circular objects or simple balls to show elastic and inelastic collisions, or gravity acting on a falling object. More advanced classrooms will use electronic devices that can measure temperature, force, pH, or other parameters. Most of these include wired probes and base station modules with electronics and displays.
In recent years, inexpensive sensors have been developed primarily for the mobile computing or smart phone market that can measure temperature, acceleration, humidity, barometric pressure, and other parameters, and these are integrated with functions of the smart phone for games, tracking motion, indicated damage, and other purposes. Since the volume of smart phones is so high, these sensors have become cheap. Many companies are making these sensors available separately so that they can be integrated into other devices and inventions. Mobile computing devices such as tablet computers or smart phones also usually come equipped with a miniature video camera and are capable of recording a live-action scene as video data that can be replayed at another time.